Lanier Camp, Eliot, ca. 1910

Campers at Sidney Lanier Camp in Eliot pose in their American Indian outfits. The camp, which operated from 1908-1940, led young people through stages of learning to live.

The earliest was the "primitive community" that led to a sense of individual powers. Next was the "tribal community," based on American frontier life, to practice individual power in group relations. The highest stage was "farm and home," a social unit that represented the spiritual or highest form of organized relationships.